IaaS approaches vary between organizations

Monday, April 22, 2013 - 1:39pm

Despite the many models of the cloud, Infrastructure as a Service is one of the most commonly deployed technologies because of its ability to reinvent the data center and give organizations of all sizes the opportunity to augment operations on a number of levels. Still, decision-makers are approaching IaaS in various ways, with some opting for public offerings, while others choose private or hybrid solutions.

A recent study of more than 800 IT executives by independent research firm Neovise highlighted the differing IaaS adoption strategies, noting that 74 percent of firms using a cloud infrastructure have more than one private, public or hybrid model in place. The survey also found that roughly 40 to 50 percent of companies with IaaS have more than one deployment of the same cloud type.

In general, Neovise revealed that approximately 54 percent of businesses have adopted the cloud. While this may be a large percentage, it suggests there is still a lot of room to grow, especially in the IaaS market.

"We have already entered the multi-cloud world and there is no going back," said Paul Burns, president of Neovise. "What remains is further maturity for hybrid clouds - where organizations not only use multiple clouds, but combine and integrate them to provide enhanced capabilities."

The importance of IaaS
The survey revealed that elasticity is often among the most important characteristics of IaaS. This allows organizations to be more flexible and agile when embracing innovative technological endeavors that legacy infrastructure services would not be able to handle. However, many executives are not prioritizing the quality of their cloud solutions, as only 45 percent of respondents said the quality of the tools was critical. Roughly 35 percent of decision-makers said the grade was only somewhat important.

As private cloud services hosted off-site gain more momentum, however, keeping an emphasis on quality will be crucial to success. A separate report by IDC highlighted the growth of the hosted private cloud, noting that global spending on such technologies is forecast to expand at a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent between 2012 and 2016, eventually exceeding $24 billion.

As cloud perspectives continue to evolve, it will be important that executives take the time to ensure they only use the tools that will cater to their organizations' needs. If companies blindly adopt irrelevant solutions, they will not be able to experience the full benefits of the cloud.